IV
We shall
best understand how karma is anchored in the individual and in the
evolution of humanity, and how the single facts of karma lend
themselves to description, if we begin by considering how human
consciousness has evolved since the time when, even in his ordinary
life, man had a direct, elementary perception of his karma. To-day it
is a fact that in his waking consciousness man knows nothing of his
karma. The world in which he lives from awaking to falling asleep
prevents him from having any direct knowledge of his karma. But
humanity has not always lived in the state of consciousness that is
considered normal to-day. In olden times, moreover during the earlier
Post-Atlantean periods of evolution, quite different states of
consciousness prevailed, even in the everyday life of man. There are
three states or conditions of normal consciousness to-day — I
have often described them to you. Firstly, there is waking
consciousness; secondly, dream-consciousness into which scattered
reminiscences of the day's experiences make their way but mingled,
too, with influences from the spiritual world; and lastly,
sleep-consciousness proper, in which dimness and darkness surround
the human soul and consciousness sinks away, so to speak, into
unconsciousness.
Waking
consciousness.
Dream
consciousness.
Sleep
consciousness.
It was
not always thus. There was a time in man's evolution when the
experiences of his everyday consciousness took quite different forms.
Let us look back some eight or ten thousand years to the epoch
immediately following the Atlantean catastrophe whereby many
widespread forms of civilisation and culture were wiped out of
existence.
It was an
epoch when land began to arise where formerly there had been sea, and
sea to cover tracts that had once been land, a time moreover when the
earth was destined to pass through a period of intense cold. We
discover there a humanity which had survived the Atlantean
catastrophe and was also endowed with three distinct kinds of
consciousness but of an essentially different character from those of
to-day. The prosaic, everyday consciousness of modern man in his
waking hours, by which he sees other human beings and the creatures
and happenings of nature in sharp outlines — this the men of
those ancient times did not possess. They saw the human being without
sharp contours, extending in all directions into the Spiritual,
spreading out into the aura; and in this aura they saw his soul.
Animals too were seen in great and mighty auras; in their case it was
the inner processes — digestion, breathing and so forth —
that became visible in the aura. Plants reached up with their
blossoms into a sort of cloud which permanently surrounded the Earth.
Everything was bathed in a dying astral light. The day-consciousness
of men who lived directly after the Atlantean Flood was a gradually
fading astral vision of the physical world. I say
“fading,” for in its power of giving light it was
gradually waning away; before the Atlantean catastrophe this power of
vision in astral light had been much stronger and more intense.
The
awakening to this condition of consciousness — for the entering
into it may be compared to an awakening — was very different
from the awakening of normal man to-day, where the soul is confronted
with chaotic dreams before passing into the waking consciousness of
day. When these people of antiquity awakened it was no mere world of
dreams that invaded their consciousness; they were within a world of
reality of which they knew also that therein they had been among
spiritual Beings of the higher Hierarchies and elementary
spirit-beings. “Waking up” was for them as it might be
with a man of to-day who leaves a place in which he has had many
experiences and goes somewhere else where in a sphere of new
experiences he remembers the others. When in those ancient times a
man entered waking life, he had the new experiences of day; but the
remembrances remained with him of how he had been in another world,
with other beings, not with the physical human beings who together
with the plants and animals are generally around him, but with
disembodied human souls living between death and a new birth, and
with other beings, too, who never incarnate on the earth.
Man felt
that he had departed from beings dwelling in the cosmos and was now
placed into another world, into the world of physical experience
between birth and death, Nevertheless he still preserved a memory of
the spiritual world, the world through which human beings pass
between death and a new birth. Vision of the spiritual world still
streamed into his already fading astral vision. The condition of
consciousness in which man to-day lives among purely physical beings
did not then exist at all. In those times men had the following
experience — it was not a dream but a picture that was graphic
and real: when they passed into the day-consciousness and looked at
trees, animals, mountains, rocks and clouds, they felt that this was
the same world in which were living those spirit-beings and human
souls who were not incarnate on the earth but living in the spiritual
world that is man's habitation between death and a new birth. And
then there came to these men a concretely real picture of how these
beings pass into the trees and rocks while man is in his waking
consciousness, how they disappear into the depths of the mountains or
rise up to the heights of the clouds, steal away into all the created
things of outer physical nature.
On going
into a forest, a man would, for example, notice a tree and know that
it was the hiding place of a being with whom he had been together in
the night. Men then saw clearly, as an Initiate can still see to-day,
how spirit-beings made their way into physical habitations as though
into their homes. No wonder that all these things passed over into
the myths and that men talked of tree-spirits, water-spirits, spirits
of clouds and mountains, for they saw their companions of the night
disappearing into the mountains, into the waves, into the clouds,
into the plants and the trees.
Such was
early dawn in the experience of the soul: men saw the spirit-world
disappearing into the physical world of sense. They spoke reverently
of the great and lofty Spirits as taking rest by day in these
physical habitations; they spoke of the lesser, elementary beings who
live among men and often among animals, as lurking in the things of
nature. They expressed it even roguishly. But whether expressed in
sublime and reverent language or in pleasantries, it was exactly what
they felt about this condition of early dawn in the soul's
experience.
Picture
it to yourselves. A human being had been in a spiritual world during
the last phase of his sleep; it was when he awoke, and only then,
that he clearly remembered having been in this spiritual world. How
was this? Why did he only see this spiritual, super-sensible world as
he awoke, when the spirits were already disappearing? Why did he only
then see this spiritual, super-sensible world in which he lived
between death and birth? It was because in those days, when during
the last phase of his sleep man was able to see the spirit-world, he
experienced yet a third condition of consciousness which conjured up
another, an entirely different world before his soul. For it was so
that during the time he was “asleep” in his earthly
existence and present with power of vision in the spiritual world, he
looked back on the evolution of his own karma.
This
third state of consciousness experienced by men during the epoch
immediately following the Atlantean catastrophe, consisted in a
vision of karma. This vision of their own karma was an absolute
reality to them.
Waking
consciousness .... Fading astral vision.
Dream
consciousness ..... Vision of the spiritual world.
Sleep
consciousness ....... Vision of karma.
As the
three states of consciousness alternate in the life of man to-day, so
did ancient man experience successively the three conditions of a
darkening astral vision, a vision of spiritual worlds and a vision of
karma.
It is a
fact that in olden times a vision of karma was a reality of
consciousness for man; we can truly say that man once had a
consciousness by means of which he beheld the reality of karma.
Evolution
then took the following course. First of all this vision of karma
ceased in the sleep that was of course no sleep as we understand it.
The vision of karma began to grow dim. Of the facts of karma there
only remained the knowledge possessed by the Initiates in the
Mysteries. That which had once been vision and actual experience
became a matter of learning and erudition. The ancient consciousness
darkened and there only remained — so it was in the old
Chaldean-Babylonian-Egyptian period — the power to look up into
the spiritual world. Thus, in the centuries which preceded the
Christian epoch, a vision of the super-sensible world still came about
quite naturally, but the facts about karma were only taught, they
were no longer seen. In the times immediately preceding the
Christian era there was still an intense consciousness of the
spiritual world, of the world in which man lives between death and a
new birth, although the consciousness of karma had faded and was
simply not there for humanity in general when the Christian era
began. It is therefore understandable that special emphasis was laid
upon man's connection with the spiritual world while he is in the
disembodied state. Especially in the ancient Egyptian conception we
can discern this intensely strong consciousness of the spiritual
world, a purified, and clear-sighted consciousness of the world which
man enters through the gate of death, when he becomes Osiris. But
there is no consciousness any longer of repeated earthly lives.
Then came
the gradual approach of the time which has now reached its apex and
properly belongs to the humanity of our day. Astral vision has sunk
into the prosaic, matter-of-fact consciousness we have in ordinary
life between awaking and falling asleep, when we only perceive, for
example, that insignificant part of man which is enclosed by his skin
and consists in flesh and bones and different vessels; that is all we
see in our day-consciousness. One can well understand that people
want to array it in all kinds of so-called beautiful clothes in an
attempt to give it some importance, since deep down in the
sub-consciousness there is a feeling that in itself it is of no
significance and belongs, rightly, in the radiant, glowing garment of
the aura, of the astral and Ego nature. And when men became aware of
the change from the vision that sees the human being in his aura to
the vision that sees only the unimportant, bodily part of him, they
endeavoured to imitate in the clothing what had once been seen as the
aura; so that the fashions of old — if I may put it so —
were in a certain sense copies of the aura. As for modern fashions,
well, I can assure you they are no such thing!
The
consciousness of the super-sensible world has taken on the form of
chaotic dreaming. Man dreams it away! And in respect of the
karma-consciousness, man is fast asleep. He would have the
consciousness of karma if that part of his consciousness which is
dreamless between falling asleep and awakening were suddenly to
awake. Then he would have the consciousness of karma. Thus in the
course of ten thousand years or thereabouts, the great change has
taken place. Man “wakes” away — not only
“sleeps” away — the spiritual reality in the
physical world. He “wakes” away the Spiritual in nature,
he “dreams” away the true spiritual world, he
“sleeps” away his karma.
This
development was necessary, as I have often told you, in order that
the consciousness of freedom might arise. But humanity must now again
emerge from its present condition of consciousness.
We have
heard that what was a natural, albeit a dreamlike state of
consciousness in olden times, namely knowledge of the super-sensible
world and of karma, gradually grew dim and then became
Mystery-teaching, while in the modern age of materialism it has been
entirely lost. But in this age the possibility must again be found of
building a bridge to consciousness both of the super-sensible world
and of karma.
This
means, in other words: When we picture to ourselves how in olden
times at early dawn, the spirit-beings with whom man lived from
falling asleep to awakening hid themselves in trees and clouds, in
mountains and rocks, so that in the day man could say to himself when
he saw a tree or a rock or a spring: “A spirit has been
enchanted into it, a spirit with whom I was together during my
sleep-consciousness” — so now, by accepting the new
Initiation-Science, we must learn in our present day-consciousness to
recognise the spirit and as we look at every rock or tree or cloud or
star, or sun or moon, to recognise the spiritual beings in all their
diversity.
We must
set out on the path that leads to this. We must prepare for the time
when it shall be even so. As truly as a man of olden time, on
awakening, saw the spirit-beings with whom he had lived during the
night steal into the trees and rocks, so truly for modern man shall
the spirit-beings steal forth again from tree and rock and
spring!
It can
really happen, and in this way. A man can lay aside the standpoint of
ordinary prejudice in which he has been living, into which even
children in the kindergarten are led to-day; he can put aside the
prejudices that make him imagine he cannot with healthy human
understanding see into the spiritual world. And when the Initiate
comes and tells of things of the spiritual world and of events that
happen there, then, although he cannot yet himself see, nevertheless
by making use of his unprejudiced human understanding, he can be
enlightened by the communications that are given concerning the
spiritual worlds. This is indeed, and under all circumstances, the
right first step for each one to-day.
But
difficulties are always cropping up ... Last year, after one of my
lectures on how to attain knowledge of the spiritual worlds, a
well-meaning paragraph appeared in a newspaper of some standing. We
can really call it “well-meaning” and even
“respectable” as compared with many vehement expressions
of opposition to Anthroposophy to-day! In this lecture I had pointed
out that there is no need to become clairvoyant in order to have
knowledge of the spiritual world, but that when the seer imparts the
knowledge it can be received and understood by the healthy human
intellect. I had emphasised this very strongly. The man who wrote the
paragraph said in all good faith: “Steiner wants to apply the
healthy human intellect to knowledge of the super-sensible world. But
so long as the human intellect remains healthy it can certainly know
nothing of a super-sensible world; as soon as it does, it is no longer
healthy.” I think I have never heard it put so honestly before!
For it is after all what everyone is bound to say if he denies to the
healthy human intellect a knowledge of the super-sensible world, and
if he speaks in the usual way of the boundaries of knowledge. Either
he must give up the present point of view, or he must agree with this
assertion; no other way is really honest.
A modern
Initiate can speak from clear and conscious knowledge of how from
every star a spirit-being is released, of how other spirit-beings are
released from plants. They come forward to meet us as soon as we pass
beyond external sense-observation. Every time we go out into nature
we may see all around where nature begins to be a little elemental,
kobold-like elementary beings coming out of their stony shelters; if
we become friendly with them, especially with the elementary beings
of the mineral world, we can see behind them higher Beings who
finally lead up to the First Hierarchy, to the Seraphim, Cherubim and
Thrones.
It is a
fact that if the exercises given in my book Knowledge of the
Higher Worlds and its Attainment are practised regularly with
strong inner energy, selflessness and devotion, they will lead
— provided we have the necessary courage — to a new power
of perception. We become able to see, for instance, in certain strata
of the mountains, whole worlds of elemental beings lying hidden in
rock and stone. They come forth on every side, they steal out, they
grow big — and we discover that they have only been as it were
rolled up and packed tight into these fragments of the elementary
world. Beings are present in the mineral kingdom of nature,
especially where the earth begins to grow green, and feels so fresh
that we can scent its aroma and the aroma of the plants that cover
it. But when we enter this sphere of elemental beings, we find that
they can indeed inspire us with fear. For the beings we thus
encounter are incredibly clever. We must be humble enough to say to
ourselves, when we see these little dwarf-like beings emerging from
the objects of nature: “How stupid man is! and how clever is
this elemental world!” And because many do not like to say this
in earnest, do not like even to admit that judged by spiritual
perception a little new-born child is much wiser than a learned
scholar, therefore these elementary beings withdraw from man's
vision. If however we can discern them, the horizon is widened and
the foreground opened up to us by these clever, playful little
sprites leads away into a background that reaches right up to the
Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones.
Thus by
means of the exercises to which I referred, a man whose consciousness
has been made clear and quick by the study of what humanity has
learned through modern natural science, can enter this world of
elemental beings, and thence a higher world. If by a loving surrender
to nature we thus acquire a consciousness that is not “sicklied
o'er” by the authority-ridden knowledge that holds the ground
to-day, we may gradually rise through Initiation-knowledge to that
knowledge which humanity has lost.
And he
who eventually attains the faculty to see the tree-spirits come forth
from the trees — the same that the ancients saw stealing away
in the dawn, and darting out again in the evening twilight — he
will also be able, as he approaches a human being, to see emerge from
him the figures of his earlier lives together with the evolution of
his karma. For this kind of vision leads on to a vision of karma.
In the
mineral world, where at first we perceive the clever, mischievous
little dwarfs, the vision leads us to the Seraphim, Cherubim and
Thrones.
In the
plant world, the vision leads us to the Exusiai, Dynamis and
Kyriotetes.
In the
animal world (when we see emerge from the animals their own spiritual
beings) we are led to a vision of the Archai, Archangels and
Angels.
And in
the human kingdom the vision leads to karma.
Behind
the manifestations of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, behind all
the other Beings of the higher Hierarchies, behind all the elemental
nature-spirits who startle us by their cleverness when they dart
forth from the minerals, or who come to meet us with their gentle
importunities from the plant world, behind all that comes from the
animals — fierce, passionate and violent as that may be at
times, and also icy cold — behind all that stands here so to
speak as a foreground, we face the overwhelming, the sublime
manifestations of karma. For behind all the mysteries of the world
there lies, in truth, the great mystery of human karma.
Having
thus prepared our hearts and minds in the right way, we shall pass on
in the remaining lectures to speak of particular facts of karma.
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